<!DOCTYPE html>
<html>
<head>
<meta charset="UTF-8">
<title>Their Royal Highnesses by ba_lailah</title>
<style type="text/css">

body { background-color: #ffffff; }
.CI {
text-align:center;
margin-top:0px;
margin-bottom:0px;
padding:0px;
}
.center   {text-align: center;}
.cover    {text-align: center;}
.full     {width: 100%; }
.quarter  {width: 25%; }
.smcap    {font-variant: small-caps;}
.u        {text-decoration: underline;}
.bold     {font-weight: bold;}
</style>
</head>
<body>
<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24941449">Their Royal Highnesses</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/ba_lailah/pseuds/ba_lailah'>ba_lailah</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Original Work</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Arranged Marriage, Cultural Differences, Drabble Sequence, Falling In Love, Happy Ending, M/M, Mpreg, Pregnancy, birth scene</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-06-27</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-18 01:33:02</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>1,018</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24941449</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/ba_lailah/pseuds/ba_lailah</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Ten drabbles for the first ten months of an arranged marriage.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Original Male Character/Original Male Character, Prince/His Pregnant Arranged-Marriage Husband</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>5</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>81</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Pregnancy Flash 2020</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>Their Royal Highnesses</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">
      <li>For <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Plaid_Slytherin/gifts">The_Plaid_Slytherin</a>.</li>



    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>Content warning in the endnotes.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>0.</p><p>"I'm sorry" is the first thing Prince George says to Count -- no, Prince Dmitri after the attendants have left them alone.</p><p>"What for, your highness?" Dmitri asks.</p><p>"When we're alone, 'George' will do, or 'husband.' "</p><p>"Husband," Dmitri says. "Why are you sorry?"</p><p>George has been dreading this for several weeks. He's surprised by how calm Dmitri sounds. "Because you're legally obligated to spread your legs for a man you barely know."</p><p>Dmitri boldly steps forward and takes his hand. "I'm not sorry," he says. "What I know, I like."</p><p>It's a much better wedding night than either of them expected.</p><p>1.</p><p>Dmitri's hands are shaking. He stills them by gripping the sheets. George stands stiffly by the bed, his face expressionless.</p><p>The midwife prods Dmitri's bare abdomen and then, to his embarrassment, feels gently around his chest. He hisses. "Tender?" she asks.</p><p>"Yes." He blushes. "More than usual."</p><p>"And how long since your last courses?"</p><p>"Six... no, seven weeks."</p><p>"Certainly not because you're underfed." She pats his belly with a smile, surprising a laugh out of him. "Get dressed, your highness. And may I be the first to congratulate you on your pregnancy."</p><p>Shocking all of them, George bursts into tears.</p><p>2.</p><p>After weeks of having all his meals in his rooms and sending most of them back barely touched, one evening Dmitri takes his place at the great table and cautiously but happily eats a bit of everything.</p><p>"I'm pleased to see you feeling better," George says. He wishes he knew how to sound less stiff and formal.</p><p>"Thanks, me too!" Dmitri says. He nibbles a grape. "These are nice, but I've been having the worst craving for donaberries."</p><p>"Is that a Crevallian food?"</p><p>"Yes! Impossible to get here, except as jam. They don't travel well."</p><p><em>Aha</em>, George thinks. <em>A challenge.</em></p><p>3.</p><p>Dmitri learns that behind George's stoic facade beats a passionate heart. Unfortunately, he learns this by making fun of George's favorite epic poem. His husband subjects him to a half-hour lecture on Augerlyn poetic forms to explain why <em>The Floods</em> is the most exquisite work of its kind.</p><p>"What's your favorite poem?" George asks at last.</p><p>Dmitri, feeling rude, sings a tavern song. To his surprise, George knows enough Crevallian to chuckle at the bawdy puns. "Are you flirting with me?" he asks.</p><p>"Actually," Dmitri says, "yes."</p><p>Whenever George gets nervous, Dmitri makes him laugh. They make love for hours.</p><p>4.</p><p>In public, Dmitri wears properly concealing Augerlyn robes, but in private, he hurries to change into revealing Crevallian clothes -- a soft band supporting his growing chest, a long loose skirt below his swelling belly -- that would cause a huge scandal if anyone but his husband ever saw him in them. George tries not to look, but he can't help himself. He's shocked by how devastatingly attractive he finds his husband's pregnant body. Dmitri is so beautiful, and the taboo makes his curves all the more erotic. Seeing him unselfconsciously display himself, languid in the flickering candlelight, takes George's breath away.</p><p>5.</p><p>The Crevallian chief diplomat, Lady Feodora, seems to think that providing Augerly with a fertile lordling entitles Crevallia to everything from low import tariffs to mutual defense pacts. Dmitri watches George get more tense and short-tempered every time Feodora says, "In honor of the part-Crevallian future heir..."</p><p>Dmitri invites Feodora to have tea with him. "The Augerlyn are ridiculously superstitious," he says, laughing. "They think it's bad luck to talk about babies before they're born. I can barely mention my own belly!"</p><p>Feodora takes the hint, and the negotiations ease. For the first time, Dmitri really feels like a prince.</p><p>6.</p><p>Choosing names is easy: Philip Aleksandr, Mary Irina. Naming ceremonies, however, are harder to negotiate.</p><p>"Of course you wait a week after the birth!" George says. "Otherwise you risk drawing the attention of evil spirits!"</p><p>Dmitri is appalled. "But what if the baby dies unnamed? The Death Goddess won't be able to reunite us in the afterlife!"</p><p>It turns into a proper fight. George shouts and Dmitri flees sobbing.</p><p>The next morning, George apologizes. "I was frightened, not angry," he admits. "I can't bear the thought of something happening to them. Or you."</p><p>The pregnant make-up sex is very hot.</p><p>7.</p><p>One moment, Dmitri is leaning forward so his bath attendant can scrub his back. The next, he's stabbed by an agonizing cramp, and there's blood in the bathwater. </p><p>The next several hours are a blur. Somehow he gets from the bath to the bed. Bitter medicine dulls the pain but also dulls his wits. He hears George often, sharp and imperious, hiding fear. He puts his hand on his belly, reassured when he feels the baby move. Moving is alive. Moving is good.</p><p>He's in the midwife's lap. Bearing down. More pain.</p><p>He hears his baby crying. He passes out.</p><p>8.</p><p>George has been raised from birth to make life-or-death decisions for thousands of people. Watching his husband and child fight to survive still nearly destroys him. </p><p>But Dmitri and Mary Irina need him, so he does what needs doing. Midwives, doctors, medicine. A wet nurse. Two naming ceremonies. A letter to Dmitri's parents. His own parents help somewhat, but they have a country to run.</p><p>One day, Dmitri teases him -- a feeble joke, but still a joke. "There you are," George says, smiling, weeping.</p><p>"I'd never leave," Dmitri says. They cry on each other until the baby starts crying too. </p><p>9.</p><p>Dmitri is rereading <em>The Floods</em> when George comes in with a covered tray. "I'm not really hungry," he says, but George lifts the cover. Underneath is a bowl of fresh, ripe donaberries.</p><p>"How?" Dmitri gasps.</p><p>"As you said, they spoil in transport," George says. "So I imported some bushes, and a gardener to tend them."</p><p>"It's a little late to soothe my pregnancy cravings."</p><p>George glances at the cradle. "Well... life doesn't always go as planned."</p><p>The berries are sweet. George's berry-stained lips are sweeter. Mary dozes in her cradle. <em>How lucky I am</em>, Dmitri thinks. <em>How very, very lucky.</em></p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p> </p><p>(spoiler space for people reading the endnotes first)</p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>Content warning: this fic contains a brief but slightly bloody scene of giving birth prematurely. The parent and child both survive and are eventually fine.</p></blockquote></div></div>
</body>
</html>